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God’s Plan for Support of His Work, October 23
The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be
watered also himself.
Proverbs 11:25
.
The Lord has made the proclamation of the gospel dependent on the
consecrated ability and the voluntary gifts and offerings of His people.
While He has called men to preach the Word, He has made it the privilege
of the whole church to share in the work by contributing of their means
to its support. And He has bidden them also to care for the poor, as
representatives of Himself. A tithe of all our income the Lord claims as
His own, to be devoted solely to the support of those who give themselves
to the preaching of the gospel. And besides this He asks of us gifts and
offerings for His cause and also to supply the needs of the poor....
The Lord is ever bestowing His blessings and mercies upon men.
Should He withdraw these gifts we should perish. Every moment He has
His human family in view. “He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on
the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (
Matthew 5:45
).
He gives us “fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness”
(
Acts 14:17
). It is God who gives men power to get wealth. The quick,
sharp thought, the ability to plan and execute, are from Him. It is He
who blesses us with health and opens ways for us to acquire means by
diligent use of our powers. And he says to us, “A portion of the money
I have enabled you to gain is Mine. Put it into the treasury in tithes, in
gifts and offerings, that there may be meat in Mine house—that there may
be something to sustain those who carry the gospel of My grace to the
world.”
God might have carried forward His work in the world, and have
provided for the poor, without the cooperation of man. He asks for our
service and our gifts, not only that we may thus manifest our love for Him
and our fellow men but because the service and sacrifice for the good of
others will strengthen the spirit of beneficence in the giver’s heart, allying
us more closely to Him who was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, that
we through His poverty might be rich. And it is only as we thus imitate the
Saviour’s example that our characters will be developed in His likeness.
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